The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-09-19

! tttieht -rad- executive Force could never have
| achieved. Many of those who are making
great effort for place and power will never
succeed, just because they are not of enough
Importance to be abused. 1t is the nature
of man to gather about those who are per
secuted aud defend them, and they are apt
to forget the faults of those who are sub
jectS of attack while attempting to drive
back the slanderers. Helen Stirk, q Scotch
martyr condemned with her husband to
death for Christ's sake, said TO her husband:
Rejoice; we have lived together many joy
full days, but this day wherein we must die
together ought to be most joyful To US BOTH
Therefore will not bid you good night, for
soon we shall meet in the heavenly king
dom" By the flash of the furnace best
Christian character is demonstrated
go into another department, and / find
that those great denominations of Chris
tians which have been most abused have
spread the most rapidly. No good man was
ever more vilely maltreated than John
Wesley. His followers were hooted at and
maligned and called by every detestable
name that Internal ingenuity could invent,
but the hotter the persecution the more
rapid the spread of that denomination, un-
til you know what a great host they have
become and what a tremendous force for
God and the truth they are welding all the
world over. 1t was persecution that gave
Scotland to Presbyterianism. 1t was perse-
cution which gave our own, land first
to civil liberty and afterward to
religious freedom. Yea, may go further
back and say it was persecution that gave
the world the great salvation of the Gospel
The ribald mockery, the hungering and
thirsting, the unjust trial and ignominious
death where all the force of HELPS fury was
hurled against the cross was the introduc-
ton of that religion which is yet to be the
earth's deliverance from guilt and suffering,
and her everlasting enthronement among
the principalities of heaven. Tho State has
sometimes said TO the church, Come, lot
me take your hand and will help you"
What has been the resultl The
church has gone back and has lost
its estate of holiness and has become in
effective. At other times the State has said
to the church 81 will crush you" What
has been the result. After the storms have
spent their fury, the church, so far from
having lost any of its force, has increased
and is worth infinitely more after the as
sault than before it. The church is far
more indebted to the opposition of civil gov
ernment than to its approval, The fires of
the stake have only been the torches which
Christ held in his hand by the light of
which the church has marched to her pres
ent position. In the sound of racks and
implements of torture / hear the rumbling
of the wheels of the Gospel chariot.
Scaffolds of martyrdom have been the stairs
by which the church has assembled. Aqua
FORTS is the best test of pure gold.
Furthermore, our subject impresses us
that sins will come to exposure. Long, long
ago had these brothers sold Joseph into
Egypt. They had suppressed the crime,
and 1t was a profound secret well kept by
the brothers. But suddenly the secret is
out The old father hears that his son is in
Egypt, having been sold there by the malice
must have burned and their hearts sunk at
the flaming out of this suppressed crime
The smallest iniquity has O thousand
tongues, and they will blab out an exposure
Saul was sent to destroy the CanaaniteS,
their sheep and their oxen But when he
got down there among the pastures he saw
some fine sheep and oxen too fat to kill,
and so he thought he would steal
them He drove them towards home, but
stopped to report to the prophet how well
he had executed his commission, when In
the distance the sheep began to bleat and
the oxen to below. The secret was out and
Samuel said to the blushing and confounded
Saul: what means the bleating of the
sheep that hear and the lowing of the cat
tle9 Aye, my hearers, you cannot keep an
iniquity quiet. At just the wrong time the
sheep will bleat and the oxen will below
Achan cannot steal the Babylonish garment
without getting stoned to death, nor Bene-
dict Arnold betray his country without hav-
ing his neck stretched Look over the po-
lice arrests, these thieves, these burglars
these adulterers, these counterfeiters these
highwaymen, these assassins. They all
thought they could bury their iniquity
so deep down that il would never
come to resurrection. But there was
some shoe that answered. to
the print in the sand, some false keys found
in possession, some bloody knife that whis
pere1 of the deed and the public indigna-
tion. and the anathema of outraged law
hurled him into the Tombs or hoisted him
on the gallows. At the close of the battle
between the Dauphin Of France and the
Helvetans, Burchard Monk wa, so elated
with the victory that he lifted his helmet
to look off upon the field, when wounded
soldier hurled a stone that struck bis un-
covered forehead and he fell. Sin will
always leave some point exposed, and there
is no safety in iniquity. Francis the
First, King of France, was discussing how
it was best to get his army into italy.
Amaril, the court fool, sprang out from the
corner and said TO the king and his staff
officers: you had better be thinking how
you will get your army back out of Italy
after once you have entered In other
words, 1t is easier for US to get into sin than
to get out of it. Whitefeld was riding on
horseback in lonely way with some mis-
sionary money in a sack fastened TO the
saddle-bags A highwayman sprang out
from the thicket and put his hand
out toward the gold, when Whitetleld
turned upon him and said: "That
belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ touch IL II
you dare" and the villain fell back empty
handed into the thiclset. o, the power Of
conscience. II offended, it becomes Gods
ayenging minister Do not think that you
can hide any great and protracted sin in
your hearts In an unguarded moment 1t
will slip off of the lip, or sone slight occa-
sion may for a moment set ajar this door Of
hell that you wanted TO keep closed But
suppose that in this life you hide IL, and
you get along with that transgreSsiOn burn
ing in your heart,as u ship ON fire within for
days may hinder the fame IRON bursting
out by keeping down the hatchways, yet at
last, In the Judgment, that iniquity will
blaze out before the throne of God and the
universe.
Furthermore: Learn from this subject the
inseparable connection between all events,
however remote. Lord Hastings was be-
headed one year after he had caused tho
death OF the QUEENS children, in the very
month, the very day, the very hour.
and the very moment. There is wonderful
precision IN the Divine judgments. The
universe Is only one thought Of God. Those
things which seem fragmentary and isolated
are only different parts OF that one great
thought How far apart seemed these two